Bahrain suffered another heartbreaking exit yesterday (Wednesday) at the Fifth edition of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Juwana Mohamed bowed was the most recent athlete in action for the kingdom on the second day of taekwondo events, staged at the Taekwondo DanceSport Arena.
A 10-27 defeat to Vietnam’s Thi Nguyen Ha in the women’s under-62kg weight group’s round of 16 sent the 17-year-old Bahraini out of the medal battle.
It was an emotional outcome for Juwana, whose elder sister Jumana faced similar fate in the women’s under-73kg category on Tuesday after missing on a medal, going down to her Filipino opponent Kirstl Alora 10-17 in the quarter-finals.
The result kept Bahrain on two medals, thanks to Ali Munfaredi and Ahmed Shebeeb, who took the men’s under-7kg gold and bronze medals, respectively on Monday.
Taekwondo action continues today, the penultimate day of taekwondo competition, when Walaa Al Doseri – Bahrain’s last hope in this discipline – heads into her opening women’s under-57-kg bout with Chimi Dolma of Bhutan at 7.30am (Bahrain time).
The trio Bahrainis are being coached by Tawfeeq Nuwaiser of Jordan, who earlier described the event is a golden opportunity for his young athletes to acquire more experience, improve their skills and boost their rating globally.
Meanwhile, Bahrain Royal Equestrian and Endurance Federation president and Bahrain chef de mission Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid Al Khalifa visited Olympic Council of Asia president Shaikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah, who is also present in Ashgabat.
Both sides had discussions on the games progress and the tremendous success Turkmenistan achieved so far as the first central Asian nation to host this event. Elsewhere, Bahrain Olympic Committee general secretary Abdulrahman Askar headed his nation’s side at the Olympic Council of Asia meetings held in Turkmenistan’s capital on the sidelines of the games.
Shaikh Ahmed chaired the meeting, in which he commended the efforts of Ashgabat in bringing this continental gathering on its home soil as well as the opening ceremony programme, which he described as ‘outstanding’.
The meeting also brought up reports on teams sports games that will be organised in Asia in the future, including the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, in Indonesia, the following edition in 2022 in Hangzhou, in China, and contributions of the Olympic Solidarity to National Olympic Committees.???